Glenn Beck was in Utah this weekend raising money for a private liberal arts college in Southern Utah, supplying me with a whole new set of idiotic quotes with which to write this Sunday morning post.

Beck says Huntsman is right for the ambassadorship to China, but could be the death of the Republican party. And he adds that he doesn’t really know much about Huntsman (but why let that get in the way of his mindless prattle?), but he’s “been to Utah enough to know that he’s not the conservative that I like, but I’m not a resident of Utah, what do I know.”

One wonders, does the guy ever actually think? And what kind of college would . . . oh never mind, I know the answer to that one (somewhat ironically, the college has posted an article entitled The Era of Liberals and Conservatives is Over). And the big question: To be a popular and successful among Republicans, do you simply have to spout ultra-right wing convictions with no substance whatsoever?

He says if, as some suggest, that Huntsman is the future of the GOP, then the party has problems, “my apologies to senior (Governor’s father), but if that’s (Governor Huntsman) the future of the Republican Party then the Republican Party is over,” said Beck.

Beck made the comments at a $500 a plate fund raiser for small, conservative college George Wythe University in Cedar City.

Beck said that the Republican party needs leadership, and he defines Huntsman as too moderate. “The Republican Party needs to stand for something and not “democrat lite” not “progressive lite,” said Beck

The conservative talk show host did say that the governor, who was recently appointed by President Obama as ambassador to China, is uniquely qualified to be America’s top diplomat in the Communist country, “(Huntsman’s) a guy who understands China, who has a long family history with China who speaks the language, which can be subtle at times, he’s the right guy,” says Beck.

Despite those positive comments, Beck says the popular Huntsman is not his political cup of tea, “I don’t know a lot about Huntsman I’ve just been to Utah enough to know that he’s not the conservative that I like, but I’m not a resident of Utah, what do I know.”

Yesterday the Deseret News had a front page story about the amazing popularity of Beck and some dude named Greg Foster from what I call “family hate and death radio”, (yeah, KNRS, 570 on your dial), had this to say to promote his evil radio station:

“I can’t think of any specific reasons for the Mormon thing, but I can tell you his overall image is growing,” said Greg Foster, director of programming for Salt Lake radio station KNRS, one of many stations carrying Beck’s voice to his masses. “He’s No. 1 in his time slot — not just for talk radio, either. He’s just No. 1. I think it’s because he represents the values and opinions of so many right now.”

The entire theme of the D-News article is right in line with that sentiment. I usually confine my reading of comments to articles by people with silly monikers to this site, but it seems to me that of the many comments about the article, most seemed to be against Beck representing the Mormon church; I can only hope Mormon owned D-News noticed this, and will stop promoting this zesty fool.

It has long been my hope that the church would condemn and remove Hannity from, church owned, KSL radio, but they are probably in negotiations to put Beck on the air. As KSL’s former program director once told me, “Hannity brings in the advertisers”, and Glenn Beck is obviously the “chosen one” these days if you’re looking for nutty, liberal bashing, tripe.